AMAZING COIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 445, 1 February 1933, Page 7

AMAZING COIN

MANIFOLD USES UTILITY OF PENNY REACHES REMARKABLE PROPORTIONS LESS APPRE CIATED OF ALL. Five hundred million pennies h'ave disappeared! The penny is the most amazing coin of any realm — for tbere is no equivalent to it in any other country. It is amazing in the number of small things it does and in the magnitude of the totals it reaches, says an Englisb newsp'aper. According to the figures issued by the Royal Mint, there were issued in Britain between 1860 and 1930 no j fewer than 1,760,000,000 pennies. Of j these 86,000,000 bave been withdrawn. j The banks, it is further stated, hold fewer than 400,000,000. Giving every single one of the popu- ' lation six coppers, that accounts for ' another 250,000,000. Allow a further 500,000,000 for businesses, gas companies, tramways, and the like, and we get the figure of 1,150,000,000. The othen 500,000,000 must have "burned holes" for good and all. Just lost! More than 100,000,000 pennies were 'eollecijed from jtelepbone call-boxes last year in London area alone. Consider the thousands of automatic machines all over the country. If it ! were not for the humble penny, nine- | j tenths of them would go out of existence. As it is, the organisations that | control them reckon to gather up 2000 j tons of pennies a year. j Match machines are the most popuj lar. No fewer than 250,000,000 boxes j are sold by automatic machines in the i course of a year. The weighing | machines dispose of 20,000,000 tickets | in the same period, and chocolate ! machines hand out 60,000,000 hars. The humble eopper touches a phase I of individual and crowd psychology | that no other coin could possibly do. | Nobody minds hegging a penny at an awkward moment, but few would think of saying: "Got a sixpence handy?" A man with eighteen pence ) in coppers in his trousers is heavily | laden. He at onee hecomes a person j ready to distribute largesse for the | j salce of his own comfort! | ! What would happen to hospitals and I flag days if there were no nimhle | pennies ? Think of the numher of j amusement parks, piers, and popular sideshows that would cease trading but for the humble copper. Try to imagine the incredible number of pennies that are left under plates! I I The writer adds. "We are delibej l-ately careless of our pennies. This is j ' a trutl/ so sound that all manner of j j people make fortunes out of it — mere- ] j ly by devising new ways of relieving I us of our pennies. What's a penny, ] any way 1 "There is no more valuable symbol J of wealth than the humble copper. 'Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.' And the only time we do so is at the, toddling age with a money-box — when, of course, we relieve others of their care- | less coppers!"